Justice League: The Animated Series "Secret Origins" Parts One , Two And Three Review

 

Animation fans I thought that with Zack Snyder's Justice League currently doing the rounds on HBO Max I thought now would be the right time to remind people of a show that they perhaps either forgot about or just straight up didn't even know about in the first place. I will admit that after watching this three part episode I honestly felt that the story in this episode could have been the plot / story of a future live action Justice League movie and so join me as I review the three episodes of Justice league: The Animated Series with the episodes being called simply "Secret Origins" enjoy.

The plot of this three part episode is Earth in under threat from an alien invasion and so it's up to Batman , Superman , Green Lantern (John Stewart) , The Flash (Barry Allen) Martian Manhunter and Hawkgirl to put a stop to this invasion before all of life on earth is wiped out for good. In terms of what I thought about the plot of this three part episode in all honesty the plot of this three part episode is really freaking good just everything about the plot of this three part episode really worked for me so much so that I couldn't help picture this plot of this three part episode as the plotline / storyline of a possible future live Justice League because the plot of this three part episode was so freaking good in my humble and honest opinion.

Starring in these episodes is George Newbern as Clark Kent / Superman and an Imperium soldier and Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne / Batman and as a Technician. Also starring in these episodes are Susan Eisenberg as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman and as a Mother , Carl Lumbly as J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter , Michael Rosenbaum as Barry Allen / The Flash and as a Protester and as as Martian , Phil LaMarr as John Stewart / Green Lantern and as Ed Reiss and as The General and as a Rioter , Maria Canals as Hawkgirl and as a Little Girl , Corey Burton as a Bald technician and as a Doctor , Max Brooks as Howie , Clyde Kusatsu as The Japanese Ambassador and as The Asian Technician and Gary Cole as J. Allen Carter.

In terms of what about the acting that's presented to us in these three episodes in all honesty the acting that's presented to us in these three episodes is really freaking good. Which in all honesty shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone since all of the DC Animated Universe TV Shows and films had good acting as such it's not really a surprise to see that there's good acting in these three episodes altho I will admit it was rather jarring hearing George Newbern as Clark Kent / Superman since just yesterday I had heard Tim Daly as Clarke Kent / Superman in the movie / film / TV episode of Superman: The Animated Series which was called simply "The Batman Superman Movie: World's Finest" but that's just what I think anyways.

Doing the animation for all three of this three part episode / story is Koko Enterprise Co., LTD. don't worry if you haven't heard of them because in all honesty i've not even heard of Koko Enterprise Co., LTD. either. In terms of what about the animation that's in all three of these episodes in all honesty the animation that's in all three of these episodes really did surprise me because I thought that the animation that was in all three of these was really good and heck i'd go as far to say that the animation that's in all three of these episodes is alot better then the animation that's in "The Batman Superman Movie: World's Finest" just because the animation that we get in these three episodes is really energised and there are some really fluid movements from all of the characters as well all of which make the animation in these three episodes really good and in my opinion easily better then the animation that's seen in "The Batman Superman Movie: World's Finest" in my humble and honest opinion anyways.

Now then this show is responsible for introducing Wonder Woman into the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) and as well as introducing Wonder Woman into the DCAU we also get her arriving to man's world. I honestly thought that it was very brave of the makers of this show to introduce a key character like Wonder Woman without really giving out much details about her origin simply because any of the main stream audience who was watching this three part might not have been aware of firstly who Diana Prince /Wonder Woman even is and secondly they might even be aware of the origin story for Diana Prince / Wonder Woman and so introducing Diana Prince /Wonder Woman in this three part episode without doing her origin was in my opinion at least a very brave move on the makers of this shows but that's just what I think anyways.

I will admit that I liked how all of the other members of the Justice League are introduced since it would be rather jarring to see what each of the Justice League members are like when they are not fighting crime. As such having them all show up to help out Batman , Superman and Martian Manhunter to me makes a lot of sense since it stream lines the story and it makes the villains of this three part episode seem like even more of a threat because it shows us the audience that these villains can't be defeated by either Batman , Superman or Martian Manhunter and so it's going to take all of the heroes that we meet in this three episode storyline to defeat these villains but that's just what I think anyways.

Now for some strange reason the makers of this show thought that it would be a great idea to have a fully CGI animated opening title sequence now while the CGI that's in the opening title sequence to Justice League: The Animated Series it is however something that has aged horrible since the CGI looks horrible. In fact i'd go as far go as far to say that the CGI that's featured in the opening title sequence to Justice League: The Animated Series is pure nightmare fuel because all of the members of the Justice league look terrible and the quality of the CGI that's in the opening title sequence to Justice League: The Animated Series is at best horrible since it looks like the kind of CGI that you'd see in a late Playstation 2 game cutscene but that's just in my humble and honest opinion tho.

Now all three of these episodes run for a total of at least one hour and four minuets but there's more then a huge chance that I could be wrong tho so don't hold me to that running time. I honestly like the fact that this story was spread out over three episodes since it gives the story more time to breath instead of the story being rushed in either a standard twenty two minuet episode or two episodes which would have a total running of at least forty four minuets plus it makes the story feel alot more epic as well in my humble and honest opinion.

Now then boys and girls since Justice league: The Animated Series is an action and since there is action in these three part episodes and that means that I have to talk about the action that's in this three part episode and if i'm being honest the action that's in this three part episode is exactly as fun as you'd want it to be. Since it's always fun seeing all of the Justice League fighting together and it helps that we see alot of just really cool as hell moments in the action scenes that appear in these three episodes but that's just what I think tho.

Overall this was a really good start to the series in my humble and honest opinion and it just goes to show you how good a Justice League animated TV show can truly be. Now then boys and girls this isn't a perfect episode by any means / any stretch of the imagination but it's a damn close one tho since i've talked about both of the good and the bad things that are in this three part episode in this very review and as such this episode gets a 8.5 out of 10 from me , as for where I got the images I used in this review well I got all of the images that I used in this review from either the official DC Animated Universe fandom wiki page , the official Wonder Woman or the official Young Justice fandom wiki page with my preferred website to use to get images from this review being the official DC Animated Universe fandom wiki page just due to how shockingly high quality the images are.

Justice League: Secret Origins Review

DC fans I thought that since my review of Superman: The Last Son Krypton went down a treat that I would review something else that's animated and features the man of the steel. So after racking my brain for all of five minuets I remembered that there was a three part series opener for the Justice League animated series and since I plan of taking another look at THAT live action movie soon anyways now is a good time for me to review Justice League: Secret Origins.

The plot of this epic three part episode is there's an alien invasion secretly happening on earth and it's something that both Batman and Superman cannot handle on there own. I'll admit that in terms of origin stories which is this basically is this is as epic as it gets and lot of that comes down to the fact that we've had a lot of time to get know both Batman and Superman so if they face a threat that they can't handle then we know it's something bad.

Starring in these episodes is George Newbern as Superman , Kevin Conroy as Batman , Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman , Carl Lumbly as J'onn J'onzz , Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash , Phil LaMarr as Green Lantern , Maria Canals as Hawkgirl , Susan Sullivan as Hippolyta and Kevin Michael Richardson as Imperium Leader. Yeah this cast pretty much reads like a who's who of DC alumni and that to me makes alot of sense since it makes the team up feel more special.

It helps that the acting from all of the actors is also really freaking solid which given that one of them is the legendary Kevin Conroy is not really a surprise since he's always great as Batman. I'm shocked that they didn't get Tim Daley back to play Superman since he's the voice that alot of people would have grown up listening to on the animated series but George is solid as the character. In all honesty there's not that much I can say about the acting that hasn't already been said because it's that good.

Now like with my review of The Last Son Of Krypton i'm not going to say who did the animation in this episode because i'm honestly thinking about reviewing the whole Justice League animated series so it's obviously going to be the same company. That said tho I did find the animation in this opening set of episodes to be pretty good it's not as good as the animation seen in Batman: The Animated Series but that series was so good that nothing could even come close to it.

What I found to be really awful is the CGI opening i've always hated this opening and alot of that is because of the fact that the CGI seen in it is just freaking awful. I've seen better CGI in cheap direct to DVD films and I know that they were limited by what was available at the time but if something's bad we should still call it out for being bad.

I said this before in the review but this is how you do a Justice League origin story you give them a threat that only all of them can take on. What you don't do is exactly what they did in the live action movie were either Batman , Superman or Wonder Woman could have defeated the bad guy here the villain is something that requires all of these heroes to work together and that's exactly what you need in a Justice League origin.

Now this is the second or third time that i've watched all three of these episodes and everytime I watch them I always get caught up in how good they are. For me this isn't just a great JL origin story but it's a rather solid origin story in it's own right and i'm not honestly sure why that's the case since there have been a lot of solid origin stories throughout the years so why this one stands out is honestly something that I can't really answer.

For me what really stands out about these episodes is how well the action is and that's not something I get to say during a premier set of episodes. Here tho the action is at it's best during the third episode when you get to see the league fully working together because it shows you how powerful they really are and it gives you a reason to want to see them succeed and that for me is a truly great thing and one that i wish other JL movies and shows did.

Overall this wasn't a bad start to the series it does everything an origin story should do and then some but it does it's fair share of problems like the fact that even tho this is meant to be one story it still feels like three episodes and so with that in mind these episodes get a combined rating of 7 out of 10 from me.